"The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom
of religion and conscience." - May 1948)

Budget Management

Trajtenberg Committee Recommends Compulsory core curriculum, limiting the study of young men in yeshiva.

The Trajtenberg Committee, appointed by the Prime Minister to address the public’s concern on socio-economic issues, has released its findings. They have made bold recommendations, asking to require ultra-Orthodox schools to utilize core curriculum, and limit publicly funded yeshiva study to five years except in the case of prodigies. CEO Rabbi Uri Regev called for Netanyahu to implement the recommendations in full and stave off pressures from ultra-Orthodox political parties.

Chairman of the Committee for Social Economic Change Professor Manuel Trajtenberg and PMO general manager Eyal Gabbai at presentation of the Trachtenberg report.26.09.2011.Photograph by:Miriam Ulster, Flash 90.

Hiddush for Religious Freedom in Israel CEO Rabbi Uri Regev welcomes the Trajtenberg Committee’s unequivocal recommendation to require ultra-Orthodox schools to implement core curriculum and the recommendation to limit publicly funded yeshiva study to five years with exemptions for prodigies. Regev called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to “Withstand pressures from ultra-Orthodox political parties and do not continue to sell out the economic future of the state to them.”

“The future of Israel and the Israeli economy depends on the implementation of these recommendations. Without integration of ultra-Orthodox men into the workforce, we would not answer the battle cry of the protest movement, a call for “Social Justice”. Without implementation of core curriculum and limiting publicly funded yeshiva study, yeshiva students will not integrate and the burden on the middle class will only worsen.”

The committee unequivocally states that “it is necessary to give children in the ultra-Orthodox sector the knowledge and tools to someday successfully integrate into quality employment. It is on the Ministry of Education to assure that all schools are teaching at least the most basic of subjects: math, English, computers, science. It is on the Ministry of Education to effectively supervise the teaching of these subjects and to enable them to effectively administer their schools.”

It is necessary to give children in the ultra-Orthodox sector the knowledge and tools to someday successfully integrate into quality employment. It is on the Ministry of Education to assure that all schools are teaching at least the most basic of subjects: math, English, computers, science.

The Committee also recommended “to apply the proposals of the Gabbai Committee (committee of the Director General of the Prime Minister’s office) with regards welfare for yeshiva students also on the subsidies given to the yeshiva per student. These issues are sure to distinguish between most yeshiva students to get subsidies for no longer than five years to that small, exceptional group of pupils that will continue to learn in high level yeshivas.” The Committee also recommends halting “funding for yeshiva students that come from outside of Israel to learn in Israeli yeshivas” who are currently included in Governmental subsidies.

United Torah Judaism MK Eichler has labeled the report “blood libel”, remarking that “The state is doing a great injustice to haredi job-seekers by not recognizing religious education while [certain] academic degrees are irrelevant to employment,” he said. “A person who wants to be a doctor should go to medical school and an electrician needs to study electrical engineering. But degrees in the humanities are not more relevant than religious education.”